About the refurbished iPhone 4 in India [follow up]
We had first reported about refurbished iPhone 4 last month, a report which was widely carried across mainstream publications and also drew a lot of interest from readers, who were obviously disappointed by Apple’s pricing for the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4 8GB. Many called us sensationalist and some even took to sending me abusive Tweets, comments and mails, because they couldn’t find them in the open market. I have personally replied to many that we will post an update about it as soon as we have more details to share. It is now time to share some details as to what happened with the refurbished iPhone 4 units. Read on…
Beetel (Bharti Airtel’s hardware retail arm that is also distributing the iPhone 4S) received a small inventory of refurbished iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 16GB was available for Rs 22,500 and the iPhone 3GS 8GB for approximately Rs 15,000. However, now we learn that the inventory was small and instead of launching it in the open market (which would have cannibalized Airtel’s own inventory of brand new, and hence expensive, iPhone 4) Beetel offered the refurbished units as corporate deals. We are aware of people who picked up a refurbished iPhone 4 16GB for Rs 22,500 with complete bill and one-year warranty.
While we cannot confirm the size of the inventory, we are told the number was less than 1,000 units. Our sources were not sure when they will receive another shipment of refurbished iPhones but they assure us this was not an isolated case.
Comments
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Please tell me where I can get refurbished iphone4 16GB n How to buy it?
Incidentally Iphone 4 demo pieces offered to some of the retailers also cost Rs 22,500/- , saw a box of one of these at a second hand phone dealer… just curious…
Can you inform how to buy this from airtel
no its not true , i have visited airtel showroom today, they said no refurbished apple iphone is available for sale……………
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aashish 164 days agoHey manpreet, I’ll paste from the post itself:
“However, now we learn that the inventory was small and instead of launching it in the open market (which would have cannibalized Airtel’s own inventory of brand new, and hence expensive, iPhone 4) Beetel offered the refurbished units as corporate deals. ”Its not available at stores, thats what the author said :-)
bummer!
thanks for an honest update, appreciate it. but overall apple is losing fanboys in india. Atleast they’re making it very difficult for me to like then anymore. 45k for iPhone 4S, are you kidding me? Why is it always so difficult to get things at same plain as rest of the world, go figure.
just sad, coz I wont go for android yet (even though they are seducing me with their bigger smarter phones) and iPhone is insultingly expensive..
bummer!
You are giving a ray of hope and then taking it away. i persistantly called up AIRTEL & AIRCEL to get any news of the refurbushed one but all in vain. They only keep saying we have no information. Even the apple sales line dont know anything about this. Sad if APPLE could have released this, it would have covered up for the 45K mess of Iphone4S
Half-baked, uninformed rubbish. All you wanted to achieve was page-hits. There never were going to be refurbished iPhones for the Indian market. How were you the ONLY source? Every single other link about the topic listed you as the primary source. You just made it all up. Fail.
this is all a rubbish justification….just all a publicity stunt…i sold my phone like an idiot as i was a total believer of bgr….such a nasty people bgr…never would want to come back here!!!
Another lie to coverup the first one, what proof can u furnish to back ur claims up, airtel says they don’t havr any corporate deals, they dont have 1000 units they never had any in the first place, us bgr a responsible site I dont think this is acceptable, half baked stories like this shouldn’t come out wuthout sufficientproof in the furst place, you have and will lose creditability for stories like this.
As you said ” it’d cannibalise own market” both aircel and airtel ‘ll never launch refurbished phones in near future and its pointless waiting for such phones.
I cant understand the pricing of Iphone 4 in India? IN singapore its avaibale for $788 even at today’s rupee sgd rate thats 31k INR, why has it been priced at 38K in india?? with half the memory?? why why why??? doest apple want Indians to buy their phone, and the subsidy plans of carriers they are a JOKE to say the least…my usage is only rs 500, so why should i pay rs 1000 per month,,, ok i might have dun that had they subsidized the handset…but i still pay full money for the handset wtf ???
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KLUELESS 161 days ago
GO TO APPLE’S US WEBSITE THEY HAVE IPADS AND IPODS AS REFURBS BUT IPHONE….NOOO….THE LOGIC OF REFURBS COMES FROM CARRIERS LIKE AT&T WHO ARE STUCK WITH REFURBS AND CANT SELL THEM COZ OF SOME US LAWS SO THEY COME UP WITH SCHEMES TIME AND AGAIN WHEN THEY SELL REFURBS AT LIKE A $5O DISCOUNT TO THE NEW ONE…SO THIS ENTIRE PIECE IS TOTALLY WRONG….THING IS APPLE KNOWS IT LITTLE TOO WELL THEY SELL THE BEST PHONE EVER..SO THEY WILL CAPITALISE ON THAT…IF THE CUTOMERS ARE HAPPY THEN THE COMPANY LOSES…ALWAYS..LOOK AT WHATS HAPPENING TO INDIAN TELCOS CUSOTMERS ARE HAPPY MAKING CALLS AT 1 PAISA PER MINUTE…BUT THE COMANIES AINT HAPPY :)
so is apple refurbished iphone 4 available at airtel outlets
where to buy this refurbished Iphone 4 in Bangalore or Chennai. pls. give the details for buying this iphone 4
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narendra 144 days agono iphone refurbished available yaaar…………..it will never be available…….so i am cnfused dat i shoud buy iphne for 32k or wait for refurbished one for 22.5k……reply fast
Ok, so I was just as intrigued as every one else here when I read this news and after waiting for a while decided to make some calls and find out for myself.
As mentioned in this article it was Bharti who was distributing these refurb phones so I called their office in Gurgaon. I spoke to the regional head there and he told me that these phones did come but they were only for internal purposes and mainly for demos. Only their own employees are using these and that too with limited features as the hand-sets are locked. They were never meant to go on sale or be available to the general public. So I guess we can put this whole thing to rest and get back to our current phones :)
plzzz telll me where can i get iphone 4 at hyderabad
I wan t to buy refurbished iphone 4G as early as do contact mne on following mobile no.8446529844 or plz send me the link for buy the refurbished iphone on my email plz i m very much interested to buy this …..
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